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www.connectingya.com Why They Arent Reading By the time many students reach high school, they equate reading with ridicule, failure or exclusively school-related tasks.

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www.connectingya.com Why They Arent Reading Students are not excited by ideas. They prefer to experience life directly rather than through reading.

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www.connectingya.com Why They Arent Reading Many active adolescents are unable to sit still long enough to read for any prolonged period of time..

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www.connectingya.com Why They Arent Reading Teenagers are too self-absorbed and preoccupied with themselves, their problems, families, sexual roles, etc., to make connections between their world and books.

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www.connectingya.com Why They Arent Reading Books are inadequate entertainment compared to other competing media such as television, video games and the Internet.

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www.connectingya.com Why They Arent Reading Persistent stress from home and school to read constantly is counter-productive for some adolescents.

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www.connectingya.com Why They Arent Reading Adolescents may grow up in non-reading homes void of reading material with no reading role models. There is no one to pass down the value of reading..

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www.connectingya.com When you write, do you think about the potential book's appeal to non-readers? R.L. Stine: Almost all of my books are designed for reluctant readers. When I wrote and edited educational magazines, I learned how to write for different reading levels. I try to keep my scary books at a 4th-grade reading and vocabulary level. In addition-- short books, fast-paced, lots of surprises and twists, cliff-hanger chapter endings to force them to go on to the next chapter, and plot-driven books with little description to slow down the action.

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www.connectingya.com Qualities of Books for Reluctant Readers: Fiction Plot lines developed through dialog and action rather than descriptive text

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www.connectingya.com Power Up With Print Young adults like fiction that: 1. Show YAs being independent from adults. 2. Reassure YAs they are "normal". 3. Present role models. 4. Demonstrate problem solving in action. 5. Allow to feel like winners/overcoming odds. 6. Display relationships of all sorts. 7. Capture intensity and uncertainty of their life. 8. Help develop of socially responsible behavior 9. Explore lives of other teenagers..